Spies, the hidden heroes of the secretive world, have always been a source of fascination. Whether you are a fan of spy thrillers, espionage novels, or James Bond movies, these spy quotes will ignite the secret agent in you.
As the mission of a spy is to collect confidential information about another country, person, or organization, they need to conceal their real identity. Thus life of a spy is an entirely different world, filled with secrecy, adventures, and covert operations. Being a spy or a secret agent is not an easy task.
Spies or Undercover Agents are a very High-Value Asset (HVA) for their country as they risk their lives to protect their nation without getting any recognition or fame.
Here is the list of the best spy quotes and spy sayings that will help you understand what spies and detectives are made of and capable of doing.
Top 10 Spy Quotes for Being Undercover
- “Spy plots are hard, really hard.” — Rashida Jones
- “Spies are the ears and eyes of Princes.” — George Herbert
- “The life of spies is to know, not be known.” — George Herbert
- “Spies go undercover. They take on different personas.” — David Leitch
- “Our mobile phones have become the greatest spy on the planet.” — John McAfee
- “Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity.” — Sun Tzu
- “Good neighbors always spy on you to make sure you are doing well.” — Pawan Mishra
- “That’s the thing about spies. Most of the secrets we keep are from each other.” — Ally Carter
- “Setting people to spy on one another is not the way to protect freedom.” — Tommy Douglas
- “Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army’s ability to move.” — Sun Tzu
Best Quotes On Spies
- “Don’t mention your move before you make a move.” — Amit Kalantri
- “Friends don’t spy; true friendship is about privacy, too.” — Stephen King
- “The Spy Act prohibits keystroke logging, hijacking, and phishing.” — Cliff Stearns
- “The birds are the eyes of heaven, and the flies are the spies of hell.” — Suzy Kassem
- “All seems infected that the infected spy, As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.” — Alexander Pope
- “Spies go to bars for the same reason people go to libraries: full of information if you know where to ask.” — Michael Weston
- “A good man does not spy around for the black spots in others, but presses unswervingly on towards his mark.” — Marcus Aurelius
- “A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.” — John le Carre
- “Writing about magic is harder than writing about spies because you’re dealing with something that doesn’t really exist.” — Anthony Horowitz
- “Spies have the same kinds of needs and desires that everybody does, which is funny. The best kind of comedy derives from that kind of truth.” — Matt Nix
Famous Quotes About Spies
- “Spying is waiting.” — John le Carré
- “Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.” — Jane Austen
- “We can do more for the people if they are not so aware of what we are trying to do.” — Volker G. Fremuth
- “Turns out, you can take the girl out of the spy school, but you can never take the spy school out of the girl.” — Ally Carter
- “I’ve always wanted to play a spy, because it is the ultimate acting exercise. You are never what you seem.” — Benedict Cumberbatch
- “There aren’t enough secrets to go round anymore. Some spies are having to invent secrets in order to earn a living.” — Shelagh Delaney
- “Spies are, by nature and necessity, pathological liars who strive to make their endgames justify their meanness.” — Stewart Stafford
- “For decades to come the spy world will continue to be the collective couch where the subconscious of each nation is confessed.” — John le Carre
- “The role of women has always been undervalued in the spy world, always undermined in terms of recognition. Unfairly so. It’s a world that needs women.” — Helen Mirren
- “Female spies typically represented one of two extremes: the seductress who employed her wiles to manipulate men, and the cross-dresser who blended in by impersonating them.” — Karen Abbott
Secret Agent Quotes About Spies
- “Pose as a friend, work as a spy.” — Robert Greene
- “Spies are like detectives, always hunting for clues.” — Unknown
- “Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business.” — Sun Tzu
- “It’s the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?” — John le Carre
- “Spies are masters of deception, always one step ahead of their targets.” — Unknown
- “All men are spies in some way or the other, in order to gain information.” — Molière
- “I’ve been a spy for almost all of my adult life I don’t like being in the spotlight.” — Edward Snowden
- “You can’t be a real spy and have everybody in the world know who you are and what your drink is.” — Roger Moore
- “Spying is like a game of chess: Sometimes you have to withdraw, sometimes you have to sacrifice one of your own pieces to win.” — John Rhys-Davies
- “It is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for the purposes of spying, and thereby they achieve great results.” — Sun Tzu
Espionage Quotes About Spying
- “There is no place where espionage is not possible.” — Sun Tzu
- “All women are natural born espionage agents.” — Eddie Cantor
- “You get so used to lying that after a while it’s hard to remember what the truth is.” — Philip Agee
- “Of all those in the army close to the commander, none is more intimate than the secret agent.” — Sun Tzu
- “Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible.” — Kurt Vonnegut
- “All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him.” — Sun Tzu
- “That world of spies and espionage, there’s a coldness to it. That’s what makes those worlds fascinating.” — Elizabeth Debicki
- “Once you’ve lived the inside-out world of espionage, you never shed it. It’s a mentality, a double standard of existence.” — John le Carre
- “Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something that you can induce them secretly to give to you. That almost always involves a betrayal of trust.” — Aldrich Ames
- “It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used.” — Sun Tzu
Conclusion
What are your favorite spies quotes and spy proverbs listed above? If there is a quote that we’ve missed then let us know in the comments section what your thoughts are.
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